In support of Borislav Mitic’s statement on the murder of music more Lion Music artists are adding their own weight and support to our awareness campaign.
GEORGE BELLAS
“The Current State of Music Piracy”
Dear Music Lovers and Fans,
I want you all to know how much I love to create music and how much of a thrill it is to share this with you all. I have happily and very willingly invested a lifetime in developing and honing my skills both as a player and composer, all the while sacrificing many other things in life to be able to push my abilities to the brink and beyond. But quite unfortunately, due to the overwhelming situation of the illegal downloading of music, A.K.A. stealing, producing and releasing albums has been exponentially increasing in difficulty.
It is disheartening to hear about the sales condition of albums, especially when I take 2 minutes and Google search “Music Download” and find all these illegal download sites that come up, a lot actually. I have put a lifetime into this, and with so much passion and commitment behind all the music I create, it really bums me out knowing that some people just turn around and download my life’s work. When I see the amount of fans that write to me, and then look at the sales figures, it becomes very apparent that something is not right.
And the problem is not just with the downloading of electronic files… Shortly after my album “Venomous Fingers” was released, bootleg copies were showing up in record stores. And on top of that, right around the same time, my debut album “Turn Of The Millennium” had been illegally reprinted and was being sold on Amazon and through other music resellers. On this bootleg version of “Turn Of The Millennium” some of the text in the credits had been changed, and the artwork color was slightly more washed out than the legit version. I initially found this out from several fans emailing me asking what the correct song order was on the album because the songlist inside the booklet differed from what was printed on the CD face, and then to my surprise, one of my private students came in for a lesson with the same unauthorized version saying he bought it off of Amazon. I immediately called the record label to see if maybe the album had been remastered, but it hadn’t been, and they ha d no idea about the distributed bootleg. The label did say a good amount of money has been invested to find and prosecute these crooks. So in these cases, not only myself and the record labels but it was the fans too that also had been robbed.
It costs money to make albums, and the artists and labels rely on sales to continue to do so. If you enjoy listening to music as much as I enjoy making it — don’t steal it.
Things you can do to help support the arts:
1) Buy the music you listen to.
2) When a friend offers to burn you a copy – say “No”.
3) Don’t make copies of music you purchased for your friends.
4) Don’t upload copyrighted music to the internet.
5) Don’t download copyrighted music from illegal file sharing sites.
Stealing copyrighted music is a violation of international copyright laws and subject to fees and imprisonment.
For more information please visit:
1) What is Copyright?
2) What is Piracy?
3) About Music Copyright Notices
4) Laws for Downloading Music
Thank you for listening to my plea for the longevity of the International Recording Industry.
Sincerely,
George Bellas
Bellas Music Studio
http://www.GeorgeBellas.com
DUSHAN PETROSSI OF IRON MASK
I will be straight and simple : If people just download or share the new Iron Mask album, which for information is by far our most expensive production, with a mix and master by Jens Bogren, there wont be another Iron mask album as the recording expense will not be recouped, so please beware and make the right choice before simply ‘clicking’.
Dushan Petrossi
http://www.iron-mask.com
SEBO XOTTA FROM STRINGS 24
I usually hear a lot of people saying old heavy rock music was better and better compared to all modern productions… Personally I don’t agree with this point of view, especially talking about sound, single instruments tone and overall mix, but this is my opinion…
We have to say today there is more attention about creating a good single hit to try to put it in the charts, so the songs structure is often influenced by this point…I agree we have no more works like old Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, etc… but I think they were able to do that….because they knew a lot of people would have bought their records!!!
Today, if you’re a musician, you perfectly know a few guys will buy your release, most of the people will download it for free, so you know you’re not going to get back the money you spent to record, mix and master your CD. This is the reason you try to create songs in order to be considered by radio stations, TV stations, all those places where you can get some royalties, even if you would like to put a 3 min intro to your favourite song, or a long psychedelic bridge in another one…
So, if you’re tired of simple commercial stuff, my suggestion is “buy CD’s!” This is the only input you can give to the musicians to focus more on their music rather than on their empty wallet!
Believe me, a musician who can use all his time to produce his music will create better works compared to the one who has to do another job to pay rent and bills.
You’re warned, don’t cry when you’ll have to get a videogame to listen to some new music.
Sebo / Strings24
http://www.strings24.com
EMIR HOT
I can only agree 100% with what Borislav has said. Unfortunately I see no progress in people’s behaviour since file sharing became popular. I haven’t given up yet but have been thinking to stop being musically active many times.
I just hope that this text will change at least 1% minds of “music killers” and that will make many think before they act.
